The following article was written by Tourism Vancouver’s Sonu Purhar and photographed by Tourism Vancouver’s Nicole Havers.

It’s been a long day, maybe a hard one. A frantic client called and kept you on the phone for hours. You were late for an important meeting and your manager sighed in a way that made your blood run cold. Your Instagram post from last night only got three Likes. Life’s rough. And you’re not even that jazzed about happy hour, because all the cheap beer and wine is making you feel like a hungover/headachy mess.

“I drink to make other people more interesting.” – Ernest Hemingway

Ah, Christmas. A time for peppermint-infused lattes, sparkling snowfall and – most importantly – booze-filled soirées with your nearest and dearest.

Our annual Christmas Cocktail Crawl is entering its hat trick year, and this time around there’s a movement afoot. A call to bring back the Era of the Literary Salon, when cocktails stimulated engaging conversation, inspired philosophical debate and, as the evening progressed, created masters of the universe out of mere drinkers.

Formichetti is the creative director at French fashion house Mugler (a role his friend Lady Gaga pushed him to accept) and was in Vancouver to preview the launch of Mugler’s spring 2013 at the Bay on Granville in Vancouver’s downtown shopping district.

In Vancouver, there’s no need to wait for April showers to bring May flowers. It’s raining now and early flowering bulbs are already making an appearance at VanDusen Botanical Garden – one of the top ten public gardens in North America – along with a few other lovely bloom varieties.

Beyond the welcome injection of spring colour, VanDusen also boasts the brand new Truffles Fine Foods Garden Café in their architecturally-stunning and eco-friendly Visitor Centre, which opened in October 2011.

Jason Wu is a former Vancouverite who is now leading the global fashion brat pack from New York City’s garment district. When the designer visited The Room in Downtown Vancouver’s The Bay to show his spring 2012 collection, I leapt at the chance to chat with him.

Wu’s look has evolved from the epitome of Park Avenue chic to edgy innovation that mixes graceful couture with hot pants and graffiti prints. When Michelle Obama wore a gown by the 26-year-old designer to the presidential inauguration in 2009, Jason Wu became something of legend. At 29, hanging out in The Room, Wu is self deprecating and, on occasion, mischievous as he articulates his design process. Get the full interview after the jump.Continue reading:Ace Fashion Designer Jason Wu Visits The Bay

Inside Vancouver is a multi-author blog, written by Vancouverites about Vancouver. Our goal is to give an insider’s view of Vancouver, to provide information, stories and opinions from the locals’ perspective about this great city.